


Let's bake

by reveetoile



Series: Arashi Sharehouse [3]
Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Baking, Drabble, Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-03 15:12:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 12,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8718697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reveetoile/pseuds/reveetoile
Summary: I'm a big fan of baking shows, like Great British Bakeoff. And for a few months now I planned to write something with Arashi and baking. So in this story, they will take part in a special TV show about Christmas baking and compete against each other. I hope it will be a fun drabble series.





	1. Chapter 1

“Hello to the audience in the studio and of course a big welcome to our viewers in front of the TV, too. Today is the big day. Are you excited?”  
There was yelling and shouting heard with a big applause and Aiba cheered a little in the backstage, Nino groaned while Jun rolled his eyes, Sho looked a bit nauseated and Ohno as if he was almost asleep. Nino smiled a bit when he realised that and nudged Ohno’s arm a bit to make him look more alert.  
“We have to get in soon,” he whispered and Ohno hummed a bit while he blinked sleepily.  
“Sho look like you have fun, please,” Jun whispered, and Sho tried to smile at him before he whined a bit.  
“I failed all tries the last few weeks,” he mumbled, and Nino grinned evilly at that.  
“Come on, your fans expect you to fail. So don’t worry that you’ll disappoint them.”  
“I liked Sho’s baking,” Ohno mused, and Sho smiled happily as he hugged him close.  
“Aww thank you!”  
Aiba giggled beside them, and they all fell silent when a staff member motioned them to get closer to the door. “Five more seconds,” she said, and they all nodded and put on their best smiles.  
“And here are our special guests for our special Christmas baking show. Let’s give them a great welcome,” they heard the host say, and the door was opened so that they could enter the venue. The cheers got louder when they entered, and they waved at their fans before they greeted the host pair that would lead them through the show. 

“We are happy to have you here baking for us. Did you practise a bit before coming here?”  
“Yes. We normally don’t bake that much,” Jun said, and the other nodded at his answer.  
“I think, Aiba-chan is the only one who regularly bakes with his nephew, right?” Nino added, and Aiba nodded smiling brightly.  
“Yes they love baking and making cookies,” he answered and sat back. “So I think I have an advantage to the others. At least my nephews love how I decorate the cookies.” The others laughed at that, and the audience joined in with them.  
“And the other two?”  
“I practised with my mother,” Ohno said and smirked a bit. “I got old family recipes, and I think they will go great.”  
“Sounds great, what about you Sakurai-san?”  
“To be honest, I am a bit nervous about this all. But I am eager to try my best,” he said, and the female host clapped her hands while she stood up.  
“You are right we should begin. I will introduce our judges now, but before that, please go to your designed cooking areas.”  
Nino tried to go into the blue coloured worktop when Ohno cried out in protest and chased his friend into his area. Nino laughed out loud when he hid behind his counter, and after a moment the judges were presented to them.


	2. Cinnamon stars

“The first task will be cookies. We already told them about the big tasks beforehand so that they can use their free time to practise the baked goods. As they don’t have much free time and probably don’t use those times to bake. So are you all ready?” the female host asked, and the five of them looked at each other once before they all nodded.  
“Of course,” they said in unison and the male host smiled a bit. “Okay so let’s begin,” he said and clapped in his hand. A big digital clock was set in motion and counted down for the next hour.

Nino watched the other for a moment and then began concentrating on his recipe.  
“What are you baking?” the host asked when he came around, and Nino looked up from what he was doing. He put the mixer on to beat the egg whites till they were stifling and put the sugar in it that he had weighed beforehand.  
“Cinnamon stars. Or at least I try baking them,” Nino answered and grinned a bit.  
“Sounds great. I can’t wait to try them.” Nino nodded and carefully folded the grounded almonds in the icing and then put all of it on the tabletop to knead it till the dough was usable. He realised that the host was still there and watching him and looked at him a bit surprised.  
“Is there something else I can help you with?”  
“No, no, don’t worry. I’m just trying to decide to whom I should talk next.” Nino looked up curiously and watched the others. He grinned amused as all of them concentrated completely on their tasks. Jun looked nowhere else than at his cookies and Nino wouldn’t dare to speak to him till the cookies were in the oven. Ohno was tasting the dough more than actually working with it and Sho… Nino didn’t know what Sho did, to be honest. His place looked like all the flour, and chocolate powder went everywhere but in the bowl and he had Aiba over whose dough already rested in the fridge to try and help with all the chaos that Sho managed to make in not even the first ten minutes.

“I would try Oh-chan, or you can help Sho to tidy up,” Nino offered, and the host smiled amusedly.  
“I think I take Ohno-san then, and afterwards I talk with Sakurai-san,” he decided, and Nino nodded amusedly.  
“Of course,” he answered and looked after him. Then he looked at the dough he made and frowned. He hoped he didn’t forget anything.  
Nino felt a bit worried when he rolled the dough on more grounded almonds and looked all over for his cookie cutter in the form of a star. “Eh? Where did it go?” he mumbled confused and looked in all of his drawers and his bowls.  
“What are you looking for Nino-chan?” Aiba asked, and Nino looked up.  
“Did you see the star?”  
“Eh?” Aiba looked at him confused, and Nino rubbed his forehead.  
“I brought a cookie cutter in the form of a star especially for this. I’m sure of it!” he answered a bit louder than necessary, but he needed it! Without it, he wouldn’t be able to make those damn stars, and he should prepare them now so that he could ice them and then let them bake in the oven for at least 20 minutes.  
“Nino I found your cookie cutter in between mine,” Jun said from across them in a confused voice, and Nino grinned happily.  
“You probably stole it, J,” he said with a pout and went over to receive it only to get hit on the head when he was near enough.  
“I don’t have to sabotage any of you. Just you know. Now go away and finish your stars.”  
“Yes, yes,” he drawled and went to finish the stars to put them in the oven and put in the oven for them to bake and hopefully be delicious. He sat in front of it and opened his DS to play a game and wait and look at the cookies to make sure they won’t burn.


	3. cinnamon-cream-cookies

Ohno was concentrated on his recipe and slowly added the cinnamon to his other dry ingredients. He tried not to use too much or too little because his mother told him that it was essential to put in just the right amount. Too little and it would taste bland and too much it would overpower the buttery taste the cookies should have.  
He looked up after he put the two teaspoons in and mixed all of the dry ingredients with a fork so that they were thoroughly mixed. That was when he realised that the host was standing across from him and narrated what he was doing.  
“Hello there,” the woman said with a little smile.  
“Hello.”  
“Will you tell us what you are making?”  
“Of course,” his eyes wandered around to the others for a moment thinking about his recipe and wishing that he could just finish making the dough without interruptions.  
“My mother loves cinnamon. And I decided to make cinnamon cookies formed as Christmas trees. Afterwards, I decorate them with chocolate,” he explained and looked for a second bowl to put whipping cream and soft butter in it.  
“You look a bit troubled why is that?” she asked, and he shrugged a little uncomfortable.  
“The dough should be kept in the fridge for an hour usually to chill. But my mother told me I could put it in the freezer for around five to ten minutes before I use it.”  
“And your mother should know, right?” she asked, and he nodded.  
“I hope so. She makes the cookies regularly,” Ohno mumbled and kneaded the dough before putting it in the freezer and setting a timer.  
“Do you usually bake Ohno-san?” she continued to ask him when he got back and cleaned the counter.  
“I make bread sometimes. And I used to bake with my mother regularly when I still lived with them. But not so much anymore.”  
“You make bread at home?” The host looked surprised, and Ohno nodded.  
“Yes, it tastes great if you do it yourself. And it’s easy and not so bad if I forget the dough when it has to rise,” he explained a bit sheepishly and they could hear Nino laughing from his place beside them.  
They both looked at the little brat concentrating on his games and grinning amusedly in front of his oven. The timer sounded, and Ohno retrieved the dough. The host went back to Nino to look in the oven for a moment. 

“They look great,” she said, and Nino looked at them and at the timer. “Yup. But they need around 15 minutes more before I can take them out,” he sighed and looked back at his game. Ohno put his cookies in the oven and set the timer for ten minutes for them to bake. Afterwards, he hoped they would cool down fast while he made the chocolate. He felt slightly nervous because he wanted to make his mother proud and happy.


	4. Vanillekipferl

The host wandered over to Sho and was glad that he and Aiba were able to do damage control before he arrived there. Aiba was back to his place to finish his dough, and Sho was left to his own devices.  
“How is it going for you?” he asked, and Sho looked up. He smiled tentatively and kneaded his dough as well as he managed it.  
“It’s okay, I believe,” he answered and frowned when the dough came apart under his hands again, and he looked over to Aiba who pointed at the vanilla essence.  
“A few drops will help you moisten it,” he said, and Sho nodded thankfully. He wanted these cookies to be at least edible.  
“If you say so. But you look a bit flustered.”  
“Yeah, the dough keeps falling apart. I may have used too much flour,” he explained sheepishly. “But a bit vanilla essence should help so that it stays together as you can see.” Sho looked positively relieved when he realised that he could knead the dough finally and continued with his task till it was ready and then pulled it apart into smaller pieces.  
“What are you making?” the host asked after a moment of watching Sho making small rolls and then cutting strips of it to form them in half moons.  
“I tried them on vacation. They are delicious. The best point of it is the vanilla and the vanilla sugar I roll them in when they are just coming out of the oven,” he explained, and the host nodded a bit confused. He couldn’t follow Sho on his explanations because he didn’t know those cookies. 

“And what are the hard parts of making those?”  
“Not much to be honest. But the dough can get too dry fast. So I can’t use too much flour to roll it on and while making those. While rolling them I put air in them, and if the holes get too big they fall apart, and I can't use them anymore. And they should look good and even.” Sho concentrated on forming the moons and putting them on the baking sheet. Luckily they didn’t need a long time in the oven, only around ten minutes and had to be decorated shortly after he pulled them out of the oven. So he didn’t have to worry so much about the time to be able to put the icing on like Jun or Ohno.  
He gave a triumphant smile when he put one baking sheet in the oven and closed the door. The worst part was now finally over, and he looked for his powdered sugar to mix with vanilla sugar. He got a bit panicked when all he found were the rest of his flour and knelt on the floor to look for it in the different cupboards. 

“What is wrong?” he heard the host asking and looked up confused for a moment.  
“I have misplaced my powdered sugar it seemed,” Sho answered carefully while looking in empty cupboards.  
“Do you mean this one?” the host asked after looking around a bit and pointing to the side of the working space. He had watched Aiba putting it there earlier so that Sho wouldn’t throw it down as he had done with the flour earlier.  
“Ah! Yes! Thank you!” Sho cried out happily and grabbed the box to pour the right amount of powdered sugar and vanilla in a bowl before sifting it all in a second bowl.  
“The timer!” Sho said shocked when he was finished and wanted to check how much time he had left and realised that he had totally forgotten to set a timer. He looked into the oven and tried not to panic. The host looked at him for a moment before deciding to leave Sho alone in his misery and went over to Aiba. Sho knelt in front of the oven and looked into it hoping to see the right time to rescue his cookies.


	5. Black-and-White-Cookies

The host went to Aiba next and Aiba smiled at him shortly before putting egg yolk on his dough to roll it up. “It looks good,” he said, and Aiba nodded happily.  
“Yes, they are perfect till now. I hope they will be good after they come out of the oven, too.”  
“Aren’t you worried about the time limit at all?” the man asked, and Aiba shrugged.  
“I just have to cut slices from this roll and then put it in the oven for around ten minutes. We have fifteen minutes left so I should be okay.”  
“Sounds like you have it all planned out, huh?”  
Aiba grinned and begun cutting the slices to put them in the oven. “I often bake with my nephews when we see each other on weekends and when I’m free. They love making sweets. So yeah. I have it quite planned out. At least the cookie part. For the rest of today… Not so much,” he admitted.

“I see. I can’t wait to taste those cookies you all make. They all look quite good. I am surprised,” the host said and Aiba laughed a bit.   
“It doesn’t look like our image right?”  
“Not really. That’s true.” Aiba grinned and put the cookies in the oven when he was ready and spread a bit milk on it to make it look better after they come out of the oven.  
“I realised you helped Sakurai-san a bit, too,” the host said at a loss for what else to say and Aiba shrugged.  
“Yeah. We practised together as the five of us once or twice, and I didn’t need much time for my cookies. So I decided to help if something goes wrong with any one of the others.”  
“That’s sweet of you. But doesn’t it destroy the contest a bit?”  
“Maybe. But we all help each other all the time. And even if we do so only one will win in the end,” Aiba grinned, and the host laughed before nodding.  
“That’s true. You are really good friends, it seems.”  
“Yep.”  
“That is good to see. I can’t wait for the other challenges this evening and what you will do.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Now we talk with the last contestant of this special episode,” the host said and went over to Jun, who looked up when he was approached by the man.  
“Your cookies look good,” he said when he looked at the brown cookies which were placed on the cooling rack. “Will you decorate them somehow?”  
“Yes. I want to decorate them to look like baubles. Like that they look a bit boring and strange I think. I like this cookie cutter because I like bigger cookies over small ones, but they look boring if not decorated. At the moment I am making the icing for them. I need to colour it evenly so that it looks good on the cookies later on. I just hope that they will dry early enough before I have to present them to the judges,” Jun said worriedly and hit Nino on the fingers when the younger strolled over to steal some of the cookies.  
“Hey!” Nino cried out and hold his hand. “That hurt!”  
“Why are you trying to steal all of our cookies?” Jun asked and rolled his eyes when the others giggled in the background. Nino had already tried some from them. Mostly those that weren’t looking that great but Jun wasn’t finished yet and wouldn’t allow Nino to eat one of the cookies that might become the best one.  
“I’m curious as to how they tasted,” Nino pouted and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I even give each of you one of mine. I made enough.”

“I don’t want to try yours right now. I want to finish them. So be nice and go over to your own place so I can make sure that they look perfect in the next ten minutes.”  
“Say please.”  
“Nino!”  
“Yes, yes… I am gone,” Nino mumbled pouting and went over to Ohno to hug his friend and steal another of his finished Christmas trees. They looked nice with the green chocolate and all the things on it. And they tasted like cinnamon. Nino really loved cinnamon.  
Jun pretended to ignore the both of them and concentrated on decorating the cookies beautifully and put them aside to let them cool down. He was more or less happy with them and chose one of them to bring over to Nino who grinned and bit into it, before moaning in delight and proceeding to feed Ohno a piece.  
“It’s nice. Almost a tad too sweet for me, though,” he simpered, and Jun hit him on his head while Ohno commented how nice they looked and tasted.  
“The last seconds will be counted down now. So place your cookies on your plates and bring them forward for the judges to taste,” the host said, and they all hurried over to their stations to take the finished cookies. Nino caught Sho’s plate as he went to the front to rescue his cookies from the almost fall and winked at the older when he almost wept while thanking him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know nobody is interested in it but here are the recipes I used with pictures. They aren't the best though: http://magoril.blogspot.de/2016/12/christmas-cookie-recipes.html


	7. First round

“Those cookies all look excellent, and I love the smell when someone bakes. Don’t you?” the host asked the audience who agreed with him cheerfully. The five of them met behind Jun’s counter, and Nino carefully held Jun back each time when the younger man wanted to wander off to clean his table top or even the workspaces of the other members.  
“Not now,” Nino hissed in his ear and smiled for the audience and the camera that swept over to them. “You can clean once the judges told us their thoughts and we get the second task.”  
“Okay,” Jun mumbled and fidgeted a bit beside the others. Jun was nervous and had to hold himself back not to do anything else to distract himself. He was competitive and hated to lose. Even if his rivals were his band members. 

The judges tasted each cookie and the appearance of them. Luckily they all said nice comments about them overall even if they criticised the appearance of Sho’s cookies a bit but the taste of them was nice. So Sho was jubilant with the outcome. He had feared that they were awful.  
“They taste all surprisingly good. But they are all completely different, so it is a bit hard to compare them. They all are good for Christmas too. For this round, we decided to make Matsumoto-san the winner. Congratulation, your cookies tasted exquisite, and they looked beautiful. For the others: Nothing is lost yet. We have two other challenges for you to find the best baker out of Arashi. It will get a bit harder each time, and now we have the challenge of making Christmas bread. You can make your favourite bread recipe,” the judge said, and the host smiled at them.  
“I hope you all practised your bread and are ready for baking?” the host asked them and they all nodded in confirmation.  
“Of course, we can’t wait,” Sho said, and Aiba giggled a bit at those words. Jun elbowed Ohno a little who was finally dozing, and he blinked at Jun before smiling for the camera when he felt Nino's arm around his shoulder.  
“Let’s not forget that leader wanted to become a baker. So I bet he will bake the best bread you have ever tasted, ne? You must have some delicious and entirely secret recipes at home.”  
“Of course,” Ohno grinned and leant into Nino’s warmth for a moment before they had to split up and go to their designated places where they could find the ingredients they asked for this round. The camera filmed all of them once more before they signed that there would be a commercial break now and they were able to clean up and organise their working places.  
This time Sho managed not to throw down any of his ingredients and sighed deeply as a concentrated frown formed on his forehead as he looked over his recipe once more. He had to be extra careful with weighing his ingredients and especially kneading the dough to make the bread perfect.


	8. Stollen

Sho was focused as he weighed down the right amount of ingredients he wrote down earlier. They had more time for this round since the dough needed longer to finished. Only on the back of his mind did he realise that slowly but surely the audience was leaving the premises. These challenges needed more time than they had, only the first task was shown to a live audience. They bid farewell to the audience already shortly after the declaration of their task.  
So now Sho concentrated in making his bread. He knew he lacked in skills and relied heavily on his practice runs (and the help of the others), but he tried his best and even if his baking goods looked horrible, he wanted to make sure they tasted at least okay.  
Sho didn't need to win against the other four, but he didn't want to fail completely either - a bit was okay, though.

“What are you making? Sweet or savoury bread?” Nino asked from behind him, and Sho looked over to him.  
“Sweet. It's called 'stollen' and usually tastes the best if not eaten right after making. But if I only had things with sugar and no salt in them I thought it might be better,” he admitted sheepishly.  
“Probably,” Nino agreed with a grin and Sho mock glared at him for a moment.  
Then he decided it was better to concentrate on his ingredients and painstakingly removed some gram of flour back into the tin before moving to the sugar. It was true that he only used that but being with Nino in a band for so many years made him extra careful, and he tasted a bit of it to make sure it was indeed sugar before weighing it.  
“What’s that Sho-chan?” Nino asked and frowned as he pointed at a bowl.  
“The pre-dough. Nino why are you asking me so many questions? Shouldn’t you do your dough? It has to rise, doesn’t it?”

“Nope. I chose one that doesn’t,” Nino grinned brightly. “And now I’m bored. Because I have lots of time to do everything I need to do.”  
“So go and talk to someone else. I need all my concentration to do this.”  
“I can help you if you want,” Nino offered and strolled over to look at the other ingredients Sho already weighed in different bowls to put in the dough later.  
“I don’t think that would be fair,” Sho said slowly, and Nino shrugged.  
“I think nobody cares. And Aiba-chan was allowed to help you earlier. Don’t you want my help?” Nino asked in a whiny voice and played with rum raisins in the bowl. “I could drain these so that they aren’t as wet as they are now when you need them for your dough,” Nino said, and Sho nodded absentmindedly.  
“If you want to,” he mumbled and kneaded the dough thoroughly till it was ready. Then he took all the things he needed for the filling and kneaded the dough once more before putting it in the raising chamber.  
“So I’m finished. Are you happy now?”  
“Yup!”


	9. Nut and Seed Loaf

Ohno looked amused at Nino and Sho who were arguing loudly over their bread and especially over Nino trying to help Sho before he concentrated on his recipe and bread. It was something he did a few times already for his sister and for Jun when he was on one of his health trips.  
He put the nuts and some of the seeds already on a baking sheet and was roasting them till they were golden brown. While the seeds were in the oven, he weighed all the other ingredients and put them in a bowl where he added the roasted ones as well.  
He concentrated and only on the back of his mind realised that some of his band members were already ready with their dough - besides of Nino who was sitting on his working space and was playing one of his games. He let the cheerful music run over him on the back of his mind and smiled a bit. It was almost as if they were home and he was trying to perfect this recipe while Nino was lazily searching on the internet for recipes to do on this show and choose the easiest ones or the ones he already knew from meetings with their families.

He mixed the wet ingredients with the dry ones first with a spoon and then with his hands making sure that everything was mixed well before lining a loaf pan with paper. He put the mixture in it and covered it with a towel before putting it in the centre of his work table. He washed his hands and rubbed his face a bit as he realised he was the last one to finish. He set a timer for two hours and then went over to Nino who was still playing his game. He shook his shoulder carefully to bring him out of his reverie and then grinned when Nino hummed.  
“Come on we can take a rest. Each dough has to rest for at least an hour and a half now.”  
“I’m good.”  
“Of course… Come on; I am hungry, and it’s silly if you continue sitting here while we are all taking a break in the Green Room just because you got lost in your game.”  
“Lead me,” Nino demanded and hopped from the counter. Ohno rolled his eyes good naturally and took hold of his elbow to lead him to the back where the others already waited for them with their ordered food.  
“Oh great!” Ohno grinned and sat down to eat his Ramen the others ordered for him. Jun smiled a bit from his place on the other side from Nino and closed his DS getting a shout from the other.  
“Eat!” he ordered and ignored the glare. It wasn’t as if he was at any difficult or important point at the game.


	10. Panettone

They ate in silence, and Jun looked over his recipe to check if he did everything correctly till now and stood up after a few minutes to go to the front to stir his rum raisins and sultanas again to help cooking it down and make sure that it was perfectly mixed.  
When he came back, he hit Aiba who was playing with his food instead of eating it, before sitting down and eating the rest of his salad before relaxing back.  
“I’m happy when we are finished for today,” he mumbled and closed his eyes tiredly. Nino sighed a little and stood up to massage Jun's neck and shoulders.  
“You are totally stiff,” he mumbled, and Jun let his head all down to grant Nino more access for the massage.  
“Thank you, Nino,” Jun muttered and closed his eyes to relax a bit more before they had to knead the dough once more and put it in the tin so that his panettone would be perfect.  
The others had mocked him for the last month that he decided to make an Italian Christmas bread for today and nothing else. But he had liked panettone when he tried it for the first time, and it reminded him of wonderful times together with his family and friends and of course of Christmas. 

Nino sat down again on his chair after finishing his massage and grabbed his DS once more to play a game before he had to go back and make his bread. Nino would need a bit longer than the other four to be able to put his bread in the oven in the end, but at least he didn’t have to be worried that he didn’t have enough time for it to raise. To be honest, Jun envied Nino a bit for that. They were all tight on a schedule and none of them had the one and a half to two hours they needed for the dough to rise properly and then the other hour or more for the bread to bake.  
The judges would have to try the bread warm too so he was a bit curious if their bread would taste good hot. Nino would have been able to bake it and then let it cool down for the rest of the time, but he promised them that he would make sure that all their bread would be finished around the same time to make sure that they could compare all of their bread on the same level. Jun thought it was nice of him.  
Jun rolled his eyes when he realised that Ohno fell asleep on his seat and went over to wake the oldest one up. Sho looked up from his newspaper to check the time while Aiba was busy eating some snacks and trying the different cookies they all made. They were delicious and before they threw them out he would eat them. And of course feed Sho with them so that he could taste all of them, too.


	11. Honey and Rosemary Bread

Nino looked at the clock and jumped up after a moment. “I have to prepare my bread,” he explained when the other four looked at him curiously and grinned a bit. “I should only need around an hour in complete but it’s better to have a little more time, ne?” he asked, and the others nodded. Nino left the Green Room behind with his game in the pocket and went to the studio.  
He thanked the staff when the lights were brought to life as soon as he entered the studio fully and sauntered off to his work space to look over his recipe and look for all his ingredients in the cupboards and on the top.  
Afterwards, he weighed the different kinds of flours and the buttermilk and brought the rest to Aiba for him to drink. He hated the buttermilk as a drink but Aiba loved it and why should he throw out the rest of it just because he didn’t like it and they wouldn’t be able to use it anymore at a later date.  
He hummed a song while he worked since he was mostly alone in the studio and the staff used the time to film him for a bit before the others entered the premises again and said their hellos. Nino was sure that it would look as if they were out here all the time later when they showed it on TV.  
“Thank you, Nino-chan!” Aiba shouted happily when he found the rest of his buttermilk and grinned brightly while drinking it and checking on his dough. 

Nino looked over for a short moment before concentrating on kneading his dough thoroughly. He swore at himself that he gave Jun that damn massage as his hands began to hurt the more Nino kneaded the dough but he knew that he had to do it for around ten minutes so that it was perfectly fine.  
He shook out his hand when he was finally finished, and he was able to put the loaf of bread in the preheated oven. Ohno who was finished himself since he only needed to put his bread in the oven and nothing more came over to him and took his hand in between his own.  
With careful movements, he massaged the cute little hand between his fingers till Nino finally relaxed under his ministrations and tapped him on the bulb of his nose. “Be more careful before you overexert yourself again,” he scolded, and Nino pouted at those words.  
“Will do. Thank you, though, Oh-chan,” he chirped and they sat down together in the front of his oven with their backs to the wonderful warm oven-door. For Nino cuddling with Ohno and feeling a comfortable warmth on his back was one of the best things he could do and Ohno knew that. He listened to the others talking over at their spaces and decided he could spend the next hour like that without any problems.


	12. buttery pretzel

Aiba looked in the oven and smiled a bit when he realised how well his pretzel looked. It was a buttery and fluffy white bread formed as a pretzel and filled with chocolate chips and raisins. A favourite of his nephews and therefore of him too.  
He took it out of the oven when the timer ringed and tapped at the bottom to make sure it sounded just right before he put it on the counter and looked for his glaze and the almonds to pour over it. When that was finished, he leant back and looked at the digital numbers that counted down. They didn’t have much time left before this challenge ended. As Aiba looked around, he was relieved to see that all of them were ready so far and that their bread was out of the ovens and on the counter just like his to cool at least a bit before presenting the loaves of bread to the jury.  
Aiba was a little jumpy, he couldn’t deny it, but so were the others he realised as he watched them. He thought they all did well so far, and he listened to the countdown of the staff as the last ten seconds went down. They all brought the bread to the front and met in the workplace of Jun who had time enough to clean his space this time and was a lot calmer than after the first challenge.  
“Why are you pouting?” Aiba asked Nino when he came to a stand beside him and threw his arm over his shoulder.  
“I’m not pouting,” Nino denied and halfheartedly tried to shake his arm off. Aiba grinned at that and held him a bit tighter as an answer.  
“You couldn’t taste the bread,” he murmured in his ear as the judges came in to try the different kinds of bread they made. They all mostly ignored them somehow and Nino rammed his elbow in Aiba’s stomach.  
“You sound as if I’m always eating,” he replied, and Aiba giggled a bit.  
“You do around Christmas.”  
“Be silent. Both of you,” Jun hissed from the other side of Nino when they both kept bickering silently while the judges apparently finished with tasting their bread and wanted to tell them who the winner was of that round. Aiba was slightly surprised to hear that his bread won and grinned happily.  
“Thank you,” he mumbled and bowed down.  
“We will taste them again tomorrow and perhaps there will be a new winner for the overall taste. Aiba-san's bread tasted the best while slightly warm. But it’s bread, so we will only be able to decide for the winner when it's totally cooled down. So I’m sorry you have to wait a bit for it.”  
They all agreed, and the host came back to the front. “So that’s it for today. I’m happy to meet you all again tomorrow for the technical challenge and the last challenge of this Christmas Special,” he said, and they all waved at the camera as it zoomed by and were happy when they finally could go home for today.


	13. the second day

It was too early if you asked Jun as they met again at the studio. He yawned widely, and Nino snickered beside him, and Jun glared at him.  
“What did you do yesterday after the shooting? We were home relatively early,” Aiba said and grinned beside them. Jun rolled his eyes and went over to the refreshment table at their Green Room to get a big cup of coffee.  
“Don’t tease Jun first thing in the morning,” Sho scolded as he entered the room and Nino looked up curiously. He grinned when he saw Ohno and hugged his arm close to his body.  
“Good morning Oh-chan. How is your mother?” Nino asked as the older got a call in the evening from his father that his mother fell ill and the oldest of them went over to her house to check up on her.  
“Good. My sister is home for a few days till she feels better. Just as I had thought, but it helped to check on her to make sure everything is okay.”  
“That’s good,” Nino grinned and hugged him a little closer before finally entering the room to get something to drink and look for their wardrobe of the day. 

They entered the studio and greeted the staff, host and judges right before they gathered at Jun’s workspace again when the cameras started running, and the judges tried their bread for the second time.  
“As we thought. The bread tastes completely different today. So we decided for a new overall winner of the bread tasting. It’s Ninomiya-san since his bread tasted nice yesterday and today. Congratulations,” they said after a moment and Nino took a cute winning pose while grinning brightly.  
“Thank you!” he said.  
“Of course we should start baking today as soon as possible since your tasks for today are a bit harder than yesterday, and you will need all the time you can get. Today we begin with the technical challenge where you all bake the same thing for the first time. Because of that, the judges will leave this studio as not to see who made what and can judge you even more fairly.” The judges left after those words, and the host smiled brightly while looking at them again.  
“The technical challenge for this show will be gingerbread. Your recipes are at your workspace. I wish you all the best of luck and hope you all will do your best. So let the baking begin,” he said and with that a signal could be heard and the clock was started for them to bake. They all went to their working counters to read the recipes first before doing anything else.


	14. gingerbread?!

Sho looked at the recipe in utter confusion and read the ingredients carefully. He couldn’t understand it. They said gingerbread. But there was no yeast in it, and it didn’t seem to get really big. There was even written something about rolling it out and cutting out shapes if he wanted and it needed only around ten minutes in the oven, not about an hour like for other bread he knew. He looked confused at Nino behind him who was sifting his measured flour into a bowl and waited till Nino looked at him.  
“What is it?”  
“Is there something missing in my recipe?”  
“Eh?” Nino asked confused and read it over. “No, why do you ask?”  
“Because it looks more like a cookie recipe, not like a bread recipe,” he answered carefully and Nino watched him open mouthed for a moment before breaking out into loud laughter. He held his stomach and tried to calm down. He knew that all were watching them now, and he felt a bit sorry for laughing at Sho’s somehow innocent question, but he couldn’t help it.  
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled in the end and breathed deeply to calm down completely. “Gingerbread is a kind of cookie. Not bread even if it sounds like it. You know those cookie houses or men?” he asked, and Sho nodded.  
“Yes. Of course. Aiba loves making them for Christmas, and you hate them.” It was one of their biggest arguments around Christmas time because their kitchen was full of little houses or men colourfully decorated with the children and Nino who loved eating the sweets they make around Christmas hated seeing them and not being able to eat them for as much as he hated the taste.  
“They are made of gingerbread. You can do all kind of things with this recipe, but I would advise you to either make the gingerbread men or just round ones that you can glaze with icing or chocolate. You can’t do much wrong if you do that and just try to follow the recipes. Be careful not to overpower them with the spices, though.”  
“Uhm… Yes, I’ll try my best. Thanks, Nino.”  
“No problem. Good luck, Sho-chan, you will do well.”  
Sho nodded and looked at his recipe once more before measuring the different kinds of ingredients and sifting it into a bowl to make the dough.  
He looked around when he was finished and put the dough in the fridge to chill before he could use it again. He was the last one, and if he interpreted the looks of the others right, Nino did explain why he was laughing so much earlier already to them. He tried his best not to blush and followed them out of the studio to the Green Room where they talked about year-end shows, and upcoming concerts as Jun wanted to spice some things up in the new year and change the order of the songs.


	15. Chapter 15

Nino looked at the recipe with a look of distaste and sighed when he realised he had to do it. He hated gingerbread cookies since he hated ginger in any baked goods and just as the name hinted it was one of the main ingredients. So he couldn’t just leave it out of his cooking. With a bit of reluctance, Nino began making the dough as it was described in the recipe and was glad that it was relatively easy. Not much could go wrong.  
He put the dough in the fridge where the others were already stored and went to the back room to finally eat something for a late breakfast. They didn't have that much time before they had to go back to roll the dough out and decide on a shape for it. Nino wanted to make common gingerbread men and decorate them. So it was an easy task overall for him. He went back to the studio once he had eaten and smiled at Jun whose cookies were already on a cooling rack. 

“You didn’t chill the dough?”  
“No, it doesn’t have to hold its form that much. I will make adjustments when needed.” Nino nodded understandingly and remembered that Jun wanted to make a gingerbread house, so he was a bit more on a schedule than the others of them.  
“I brought you a cup of coffee,” he remembered then and put the cup he was holding down beside Jun’s hand on the counter. “What were you and Sho-chan up to yesterday night?”  
“Planning the song list of the next set of concerts. We didn’t realise how late it got till Ohno-san came in to get something to drink and asked us why we were still up.” Jun rubbed his face tiredly and shrugged then. “It’s our fault for not going to bed early as you lot did. But it will be okay. Now go and disturb someone else or look after your dough before someone switches his with yours.”  
“Yeah, yeah. Good luck, J,” Nino said with a grin and a salute and left to get his dough from the fridge and roll it out to cut out his figures and preheated his oven to put it in later. The hardest thing was to find the right temperature and time for the gingerbread to bake at. That information was not included in the recipe, but now after practising so much with so many different cookies, Nino learnt pretty well that most cookies needed the same heat and time to be finished. So he trusted his instincts for when it was time to pull them out and put them on a cooling rack to let them cool down completely.  
They smelled excellent but when Nino tried a bit from a cookie that wasn’t looking as good as the others he scrunched up his nose. It tasted too much like ginger to be good for him, sadly.


	16. Chapter 16

Aiba took out the cookies of the oven and put them on a cooling rack to let them cool down while he made the icing for them. He wanted to make the cookies colourful and good looking so he planned a lot of time for the decoration while making those cookies. So just like Jun he put them in the oven without chilling the dough and he regretted it a bit since they melted in the oven and didn’t hold their form as well as he had hoped for.  
But Aiba was sure that it was going to be okay. They should taste excellent and look fun. At least that was what he planned for. He also knew that he wasn’t the best baker amongst them. He was by far the funniest; that was why their nephews loved to cook or bake with him (and with Sho to be honest but only because they enjoyed laughing at his failures) more than with the others.  
He carefully coloured his icing and checked to see if his cookies were cooled down enough to decorate them. He grinned when he realised they were perfect now and carefully began to use the icing on them to make them look more festive and Aiba put everything on the side when he was finally finished. He wandered over to Sho who decided naturally for the easiest route like Nino had advised and used white chocolate to glaze his round cookies with.  
“Do you think it will taste nice?” Aiba asked curiously, and Sho shrugged a bit.  
“I don’t know. But I think so. They tasted okay when I tried them. But I think I did something wrong with the flavour in the end,” Sho admitted and sighed a bit. 

Aiba smiled encouragingly and tasted one of the finished cookies. At least Sho had made enough that he could do that. He grimaced a bit and nodded in the end.  
“It tastes okay. But I can see what you meant,” he mumbled, and Sho grinned a bit amused. At least one could eat them.  
“Thank you.” Aiba grinned and shrugged.  
“Sorry I can’t say more”, Aiba said and looked at the others. They had around half an hour more, and Jun had just begun to put his gingerbread house together while Ohno took out the cookies at least to let them cool down. Aiba was bored, to be honest, but he knew better than to talk to any of the others that were still concentrating on something.  
“Let’s get something to drink?” Sho asked when he put down the last of his cookies and Aiba nodded.  
“Sound right. We’ll have a break after this right?”  
“Yes, and then the final,” Sho agreed, and Aiba grinned.  
“Sounds like fun. Let’s go and bring coffee for the others while we are at it!”  
Sho nodded at that, and they left the studio to get coffee for them all and distributed them just in time for the clock to count down the last few minutes.


	17. Chapter 17

Ohno looked sceptically at his gingerbread. It was the second batch he did because earlier Sho managed to let his dough fall to the floor. Ohno knew it wasn’t anything Sho did on purpose, so he just nodded when Sho apologised flustered. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have the time or the ingredients to do a second batch especially with the help of the others.  
But because of that, he didn’t have enough time to chill the dough if he wanted to be finished on time - and that was what he wanted to achieve at least. So he cut down the edges of the cookies that weren’t looking great and put it on the cooling rack. It was too late to be able to let it cool down enough to put the icing on it normally, but he hoped that it would be fine more or less.  
He made the frosting and checked the time and decided to do it when they were down to the last three minutes. It should be enough to do all of his cookies, and hopefully, the icing would harden at least a bit. 

He checked on the others who were mostly done even if Jun had problems with his gingerbread house and somehow Sho’s cookies seemed to have melted into the cooling rack a little. At least he didn’t look so happy with the result. Aiba’s cookies were extremely colourful, and Ohno knew that they would be extremely hard once the icing had hardened completely and slightly too sweet for his liking. Nino’s cookies looked classic as he had decided to put only the smallest decorations on them and was now sitting in the corner using the last minutes of the countdown to play on his game. Ohno rolled his eyes good naturally at that and hoped his fans would be happy to watch Nino playing his games most of the time.  
But back to his cookies and problems. He got the first place on the second day of the bread baking challenge (when Nino got the overall win), so he was quite happy with that, but Ohno didn’t think he would win any prizes with these, to be honest. But he wouldn’t give up halfheartedly. So he checked the cookies and was glad when he realised that they were still warm to the touch but at least cold enough to be able to be touched.  
He heaved a sigh as he checked the time once more and then began putting the icing on them. As he thought it didn’t stay in one place but began to run down the cookies but at least he was able to finish it with a few sugar writings and put them on the plate just as the time counted down the last seconds.


	18. Chapter 18

Jun was not satisfied with his end product of the gingerbread cookies. They were a bit uneven and didn’t look as good as they could have. But it had been harder than he had thought. It wasn’t the first house he did, but the first one he did on such a tight schedule, and he had realised that he wasn’t good enough with decorating things nicely, to begin with. That was more Ohno’s thing or Aiba’s if you wanted to have things as colourful as possible.  
He sighed a little and took the cookies to the front on a plate. In the end, the house didn’t hold, and he decorated the different parts of the squares, so they looked a bit like a gingerbread house when put together on a plate. It wasn’t the worst, though. 

He leant against the counter top of his area when the others joined him and ruffled Nino’s hair when the younger carefully leant against him. Sho stood at his other side and pouted when he looked at his cookies who looked by far the worst. Aiba talked with Ohno about something Jun didn’t understand, but it wasn’t that important probably because if it were, Aiba would have made sure that everybody of them could understand them.  
“The judges will now enter. As they don’t know who did what please make sure not to show any signs that they talk about your cookies.”  
“We’ll try our best,” Nino said with a grinning face and Jun held himself back not to pinch Nino at that. He didn’t want to have the smaller man pouting at him. 

They silently listened to the judges tasting and talking about their gingerbread men and Jun was surprised that they didn’t complain about how his cookies looked. They concentrated mostly on Sho’s though with bad remarks and Jun silently took his hand to give him at least a little support because of the negative comments. At least he tried his best. It wasn’t surprising that Sho got the last place for this challenge followed by Ohno and Aiba and then Jun and Nino right at the first places.  
Jun looked at Nino who grinned at him and laughed a little when they were named the participants of the final challenge.  
“We’ll give you a bit time to take a break and think of what kind of cakes you want to bake for the last part. Please keep in mind that it has to be a traditional Christmas cake.”  
“Yes,” Jun and Nino said in unison and Aiba put his hand in the air.  
“What about us?” he asked, and the host thought for a moment before answering him.  
“You may help them if you want and if they let you,” he allowed them, and Aiba let out a cry of joy at that. They thanked the host and staff when the camera stopped rolling and went to the back to take a break in their Green Room to have lunch.


	19. Chapter 19

“So hungry,” Nino grumbled when they were back in the Green Room. He went over to the catering to look what food they had available before choosing something to eat and sitting down at the table.  
“Congrats to both of you,” Sho said, and Ohno patted his shoulder softly when he saw how down Sho looked with how the last challenge went.  
“Thank you,” Jun smiled and sat down with his meal before motioning to the table. “Get yours before it gets cold,” he advised, and Nino grinned amusedly when Sho went over to get something to eat before sitting down beside them followed closely by Aiba and Ohno.  
“Hey Nino, will you make the usual Christmas cake?” Ohno asked when sitting down across the three men with Aiba who looked equally curious about that.  
“Nope. I decided against it. It wouldn’t be fair to J,” he mumbled and concentrated on his Ramen.  
“Didn’t know you would care…” Jun teased him, and Nino looked at him from the side.  
“Don’t pout. You knew I wouldn’t do something like that. So don’t even start. I know for sure you won’t make a typical Japanese Christmas cake either.”  
Jun shrugged and picked at his vegetables. It was true. Nino would have an advantage if he made the cake he did each year for their Christmas party. Jun usually had to make their dinner while Ohno made Christmas bread, Aiba cookies and Sho decorated everything to find the perfect balance between Birthday and Christmas decorations (and that way, of course, Sho could make sure they had enough to drink and to snack on when the evening got later and later).  
They ate in silence for a moment with Aiba looking up now and then curious as to what they would bake but till now both Nino and Jun looked thoughtful and he didn’t want to disturb them. He knew from experience that disturbing either of them would only end in pain for the one who was the cause for it. So he sighed and concentrated on his food. 

“Do you want to help us?” Nino asked in the end curiously and looked at the other three.  
“As long as that doesn’t mean we’ll make the cake and you play your games,” Ohno teased, and Nino grinned.  
“Never. I got so far, so I won’t lose to J now. So I have to supervise you not to make any mistakes. So do you want to help or not? You could also just sit around and watch us after all.”  
“If we may we’ll help. It’s a lot funnier like that, right?” Aiba said in the end, and both Ohno and Sho nodded even if Sho looked a bit unsure about the whole thing.  
“Okay, I want Oh-chan!” Nino cried out loud and began to laugh when Jun hit him because he was too loud all of the sudden.  
“I need him to make a nice looking decoration for the top of the cake. Out of white chocolate, please. I plan to make a Baumkuchen, and it looks so dull without cute decorations, so I need O-chan to help.”  
Jun rolled his eyes and nodded. “Okay, but only because I don’t need such things and know that Ohno would like that,” he said in the end, and Nino grinned.  
“And Sho can help me. I have to time the different layers correctly so that it looks good when cut.”  
“Oh, so I only get the help of Aiba-san?” Jun asked, and Nino shrugged.  
“Oh-chan can help you when he finished with the decoration on my cake or before I need him,” he allowed, and Jun nodded. There was no arguing with the brat when he had thought out all he wanted to do.


	20. The Final Part 1

The break was over faster than they would have wanted and they all went back into the studio to greet the staff again and to thank them for their patience with all this. Then Nino and Jun went over to their stations just in time for the cameras to start rolling.  
“Welcome back again. Now we will begin the last task. The traditional Christmas cakes. May I ask the contestants what kind of cakes they want to make?” the host asked curiously while the judges and the audience who were back for the last challenge looked equally interested in their answer.  
Jun and Nino exchanged glances for a moment before smiling for the cameras, and Jun cleared his throat before he began to speak. “I decided to make the traditional Yule Log or otherwise known as Bûche de Noel. I hope it will turn out as good as I visualised it.”  
Nino grinned and gave Jun a thumbs up. He was sure that Jun would do great and probably win this show because his cake was a bit more elaborate than his own.  
“Jun-kun and I both decided not to make the classic Christmas Cake we all know and love here in Japan so that nobody had any advantages because some already made that cake. So I decided to do a Baumkuchen. It looks a bit boring probably, but the taste will be worth it I believe,” he explained and grabbed Sho’s arm.  
“The others decided to tag along and help me… I mean us, of course. Sho will be my right hand while Aiba will be Jun’s right hand and Oh-chan will help us both,” he also explained and grinned when Sho mumbled that that bit was totally uncalled for as it wasn’t necessary for this challenge. 

“Sounds great. So I would suggest you begin before the time is over. I can’t wait to taste your cakes. As for the audience so that they won’t be bored and get hungry because those cakes will surely smell delicious we made an assembly of the baked goods you did for the last challenges as well as the favourites cakes of our judges. The staff will contribute samples to each of you, so please stay seated while they walk around you. Thank you so much.”  
A sound was coming from the clock. Jun and Nino wished each other good luck a second time and then they began to check their ingredients and their recipes. Nino tugged Sho along to his recipe so that the older was able to look into it with him together and explained where Sho could help him the best. He decided to make the second dough with marzipan so that the Baumkuchen wouldn’t taste too bland and had a pleasant surprise in it for the judges. So he told Jun he could do the simple dough without the marzipan while he did the second one.


	21. Chapter 21

Sho was a little nervous because he didn’t want to do anything wrong and be the cause if Nino lost this competition. But Nino was relaxed beside him while he measured his ingredients and looked at the recipe to make sure he did the right things to make his dough. From time to time he smiled encouragingly at Sho when he measured his ingredients and finally put them all in a bowl to knead them thoroughly.  
Nino needed a bit longer till he was finally able to mix the dough and checked them both for a moment, before pre-heating the oven and looking for a tin to put the dough in.  
“We have to make sure to layer it evenly. So that it looks good when we cut it open. If the different layers are uneven it looks a bit unappetizing,” Nino mumbled while frowning and checking the heat once more. “What do you think would work best?”  
Sho shrugged and looked at him confused. “Didn’t you make this cake already?” he asked, and Nino moved his head from side to side.  
“Yes, but not that often and I’m a little unsure. So what do you think?” Nino repeated, and Sho sighed.  
“To make entirely sure we use the same amount weighing each portion would be the best but not practical since we can’t pull the hot tin out of the oven all the time,” he said in the end, and Nino nodded with a grin.  
“That’s true. So we measure using a cup or something like that. Thanks, Sho-chan,” he hummed and buttered up the tin to make sure the dough wouldn’t stick to its side.  
“Then I would like to ask you to make sure each layer is inside the oven for exactly two minutes.” Sho nodded and looked for his phone to check the time and be sure to be able to set a timer each time.  
Nino nodded thankfully and then when the oven signalled that it was pre-heated began to fill in the first two spoons for the first layer. He put it in the oven and changed the dough for the next two spoonfuls of the now baked dough.  
It was a tedious work, but with Sho’s overly worried presence beside him, Nino managed to not forget the time for each of the 20 layers of his Baumkuchen. He hoped the judges would like that cake because it seemed to take longer than any cake he ever did. Regardless if it were Birthday Cakes or Christmas Cakes. When then finished Sho finally relaxed and Nino grinned amusedly.  
“It’s a pity that we can’t check if it’s even before the judges cut the cake ne?” he asked when the tin broke away from the cake without problems. Sho nodded a bit, and Nino wandered over to Ohno to pester him till Ohno had time for him to think of a pattern he would be able to paint on the dark chocolate when they were finished, and Sho carefully brought the cake to another working table to completely cool down.


	22. Chapter 22

Aiba stood beside Jun while the youngest of the band members read through the recipe. Jun tried to decide what Ohno and Aiba could do to actually help and frowned. He didn’t know if Aiba would be better doing the whipped chocolate cream or the dough, to be honest, but decided in the end that Aiba should do the cream.  
It was Jun’s cake so he should be responsible for the dough and not the decorations he thought because what counted in the end wasn’t how it looked but how it tasted. He gave Aiba the part of the recipe where it explained how to do the whipped cream and took the one with the other part for himself.  
“Could you just melt a bit white and dark chocolate and draw decorations on a part of a baking sheet?” he asked Ohno who shrugged and nodded then.  
“No problem,” he said and smiled when Jun looked overly thankful for those words. Art wasn’t his best task, but Ohno could do it, and he knew that Nino would ‘use’ Ohno only for his decorations himself, so they were equal in that aspect.  
He measured his ingredients and made the dough before pouring it on the baking tray and put it in the pre-heated oven. He looked over to Aiba who tasted the cream he made and nodded happily to himself before putting it in the fridge to keep it cool to use later when the cake would be cooled down. Ohno was still concentrating on some complicated looking pattern to put on the cake, and Jun curiously looked over to Nino and Sho. He snorted amusedly when he observed how serious Sho timed the baking time each time and how relaxed Nino looked when he poured the batter on top of yet another layer. They seemed to be doing well.  
To be honest, Jun was relieved that Sho was doing well now with Nino by his side and not so nervous like for the challenges before. “What are you thinking about?” Aiba asked when he came back and sat on top of the counter beside Jun. Jun looked up and pointed at the pair he observed earlier.  
“They look like they have fun,” he explained, and Aiba giggled a bit.  
“Yup. Sho-chan was nervous when they said we could help with the finale because he was worried he would make you loose if he helped any of you. He said your cakes were too complicated for him, but it seems that Nino made the right choice in using Sho because he is good at making plans, ne?”  
“You mean he is good at timing things,” Jun said amused, and Aiba shrugged uninterested.  
“The same thing just in a different phrasing,” he said while grinning and Jun rolled his eyes. He looked at the clock to measure the time his cake had left in the oven before getting ready to take it out and rolling it as soon as he took it from the baking tray so that it wouldn’t break later when he put the cream in it.  
“So now all we can do is waiting for it to cool,” he said, and Aiba nodded. They both - or three because Ohno finished just two minutes ago, too - looked over to the other two who still had batter left to pour on the cake. It seemed to be time-consuming, and Jun was happy that he didn’t do that one but he was also glad for them when they finally poured the last layer of their Baumkuchen, and Nino took the baking tin out of the oven just a few moments later.


	23. Chapter 23

"Thank you Oh-chan," Nino chirped when Ohno finished the pattern of a Christmas tree in white chocolate on top of the dark chocolate he used to glaze his Baumkuchen. He looked over to Jun who grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up. They have finished already and the clock counted the last seconds down.  
Nino was really happy that they all were able to complete all bake goods on time till now and he was a bit proud too. Nobody thought it would be a good idea to have them all here baking for a show. But in the end, it was a nice show, and they all had fun.  
And the most important thing: Nobody burned anything down or hurt himself. The audience counted down the last seconds, and Nino brought his cake to the front to put it beside Jun's cake and leant against the younger while the others positioned themselves around them.  
"Happy we are finished?" Jun asked Nino who nodded with a little sigh.  
"Baking is tiring you know?" he mumbled, and Jun laughed a little.  
"You are right. Particularly against the clock." The others laughed when Nino agreed with a frown. That was indeed the hardest part all of all the baking. 

"Now that the contestants have finished their cakes we will judge them shortly. I'm sure you all are curious who won this contest today and will be the best baker in Arashi. So far we can say that they all did well. They did probably better than we all expected, right?" Some voices agreed while others denied.  
Jun smiled amused at that and then looked up when the judges finally approached them. They greeted them all and Aiba, Sho and Ohno took all a step back so that Nino and Jun stood in the front and were in the spotlight of the show.  
"First of all: Congratulations for succeeding in all tasks till now. Not all bakers can complete all things they had to do for such a show, but all of you did. And that is something you can be proud off. Now let's take a look at the cakes you did for us. As I can see you, both have chosen European Christmas cakes for this last challenge. They both look splendid on the outside. The cream on the Bûche de Noel looks excellent. It's smooth and evenly contributed on the cake and the decorations look good. Let's cut it to look how it looks on him inside and to taste it finally. I can't wait."  
Nino squeezed Jun's hand while they tasted the cake and tried to keep calm himself. It was hard to wait for his turn, but he knew how nerve wracking it was to wait for their comments once they tasted the cake.  
"It tastes just as good as it looks. The chocolate flavour is strong and good. I can only recommend to you to try it." Jun smiled in relief, and it was Nino's turn to become nervous when they turned to his cake.


	24. Final

Jun held onto Nino’s hand tightly when the judges stood in front of his cake. Nino felt more than a bit nervous. The cake he made looked dull if compared to Jun’s so directly. He wanted to make an easy and classic decoration. Nino took a deep breath when they looked at him and bowed slightly in front of them.  
“Now let’s look at Ninomiya-san’s Baumkuchen,” one of them said and the second judge nodded. Nino looked at his cake and was glad that the dark chocolate was smooth and glossy on the top and the complicated pattern on the top made with the white chocolate looked beautiful. Ohno was so good with such things on the contrary to Nino himself.  
“The cake looks good, too. It’s nicely raised in the oven and seemed to be baked perfectly even without any holes or bubbles on the top. You would see that even with the chocolate on top if that happened. I’m curious as to how it will look when we cut it open. I hope that we can see the different layers correctly and that it will look like a tree stump.”  
“Me too,” Kazu mumbled almost without a sound and Aiba giggled behind him while Sho nodded fervently besides them. He was just as - if not more - nervous as to how the cake will look when they cut it. He hoped that he was able to time the layers perfectly for Nino. 

The second judge got a second knife from the host and cut a piece of cake out. The chocolate sounded crispy when cutting, and Nino couldn’t exactly hide his smile at that. He was glad that the chocolate had hardened correctly so that one could hear an excellent sound when broken. At least that went well.  
He held his breath when the piece was put on a plate, and Sho grinned happily when the different layers looked nice and even. It was good to see the light and dark parts of the cake stuck on top of each other in even sizes.  
“It looks nice on the inside too. The top of each layer is browned perfectly it seems so that the thin inner part of each layer is a beautiful brighter colour. I have to congratulate you that you did it so well. Now the last thing is the taste.”  
Nino relaxed a bit more as he watched them eating the cake and looking at each other. He knew the two doughs were sweet, as he tried them while making them, so he wasn’t as nervous as before. Just as he thought they complimented the taste as well and then excused themselves to choose a winner among them.  
When they have left, they all tried the different cakes, and Nino grinned when Jun said that his cake was a bit better than Jun’s own. But it was mostly because all of them liked the marzipan taste of his a bit better than the chocolate cream of Jun’s cake. 

“We decided on a winner,” the judges said just as they came out from the back and the five members watched them curiously. “All of your goods were great. They were mostly really close to each other, and we had a hard time choosing a winner. So we talked a lot, yesterday and today, about who we would give the prize to. In the end, it was a close race. But every show needs a winner. And I don’t think that any of you would be happy if we just let it end in a tie, right?” the judge asked, and Jun growled a little, before nodding.  
“Just as we thought. In the end, we decided on Ninomiya-san as the winner. All of his baked goods were good, and he showed an excellent performance overall. He didn’t panic in any instance and seemed to be clear as to what to do thoroughly. And his Baumkuchen was great. It’s a complicated cake, and he did well on that challenge, and the taste is unique. So congratulations!”, they said in the end, and Nino bowed deeply in thanks.  
“Thank you,” he grinned and took the prize money and the little golden muffin one could even open and fill with something. Aiba had told them he wanted to put sugar or flour in it and that would be how they would use it in the future.  
“I’m really happy for that prize,” he added, and they all thanked the audience and the other people inside the studio when they bowed once more and left the studio to go backstage and finally home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I wanted to post this on the 24th or something like that. But I'm at my parents, and each time I even tried to write my parents are all over me trying to talk about anything that came to their mind and then I was too tired. So I'm really sorry about this. But that's it: the last chapter (and only around four days too late)


End file.
